Derby Season

Ugh. I dislike Derby Season more with each passing year in Kentuckiana. Joe & I had the good sense to abandon our Jeffersonville apartment in favor of the cabin in French Lick for Thunder Over Louisville this year. Thankfully the Our Haven Beltane festival happens concurrently with actual Derby day, giving us a convenient excuse to leave town each year before the mint-julip flavored madness sets in. (I far prefer a nice light melomel, or a woodruff-muddled rhine wine for this time of year, thank-you-very-much.) I've never been much for the slavish devotion to Old South tradition that crops up in our otherwise surprisingly liberal city during the first days of May, nor the weekend-warrior class of seersucker suited bourbon gentry that prefer to mask their spring debauchery in the form of a horse race rather than a more frank, sexual, and pagan form.
Each year at this time I like to read the reflections of a certain native Louisvillian on his experiences at the Derby. Hunter S. Thompson's "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" was his first ever article written in the "Gonzo" style he would go on to make legendary. For me Thompson's article validates my choice to seek tradition for this hallowed weekend in a deeper way than the near-Roman vomitorium spectacle of the Churchill Downs infield. Dance around a maypole, race around a track. The rose garlands are all the same. The libations will flow as freely. A winner is crowned. Spring is triumphant.

Reposted from MySpace blog April 28, 2008

LOL Cat Rede

Teh LOLcat Rede

1. We're in ur perfek luv and trust, bidin ur rede like we must.
2. Dat fud urs, dis fud mine; keep in mind, an all be fine.
3. 3 times round that sirkl pass so evul spiruts CAN NOT HAS.
4. Kittehs wind up spell in ball by speekin it in wurds of LOL.
5. Sofft of paw and grate big ears; do not yowl and u shall heers!
6. Rightpaw round teh biggening moon, kittehs sing teh Witchc@t Roon.
7. Leftpaw round teh smalling moon, kittehs sing teh baneful tune.
8. Lady can has moon of new; kittehs hed-bash her times two.
9. When can has moon full enuf, then can has all sorts of stuff!
10. When North wind come, kitteh, take care! Srsly, iz cold out ther.
11. When South wind to kitteh sing, lov will come an smooches bring.
12. When teh West wind blow the mosts, iz no rest for kitteh ghosts.
13. When teh East wind stir teh air, fill teh bowlz wit fud to share.
14. In metal bukkit, put nine woodz; burn fast or slo, jus burnz em goodz!
15. Teh Elder is teh Lady's tree. Be respektin it. Srsly.
16. When teh Year-Wheel starts to spin, lite Beltane fire FTW!
17. When Wheel iz turned and Yule is bornz, bow to Teh Ceiling Cat With Hornz.
18. Be respektin leafs and trees, and by teh Lady blessed beez!
19. Ur stone. U fling it. Strong and deft. (In streem, to find out WTF.)
20. When u has need of something moar, avoid kitteh who yowlz "NOT YOURS!"
21. Foolish cat iz foolish. U avoid him, or look foolish too.
22. Oh hai! I'ze purrin. Kthxbai! Warm kitteh heart, bright kitteh eye.
23. Teh Three-Fold Law: respekt it, pliz, cuz good or bad comez back in threez.
24. Misforchun? You has it, just a bit? Mai bloo star. Let me show you it.
25. Dis kitteh r mine, and I'z theyrs too. Keep this srsly 4 troo.
26. Teh Wiccan Rede can has wurds eight: kitteh harm none, do thy will. Thx! Grate!

The LOLcat Rede is copyright Elise Matthesen 2008; elise@lioness.net.

Verses for Ereshkegal

Ereshkegal watches, and wonders, and waits
as her shining sister clears the gates
of death, of fate, of time.
"Her flesh shall be mine,"
declares the raven-haired queen
and sets about her selfish scheme.
She hones her fangs then to devour
the honeyed dew of Heaven's flower.
Greedily she rends skin from bone,
only to find it is her own.

"Oh my insides!" Cries Ereshkegal!
But her corpse hangs on a meat hook of her own design.
"Oh my outsides!" Cries Ereshkegal!
But her skin lies limp flayed by her own hands.

For the kurrjara whose words can soothe her broken soul
any gift she shall bestow.
For the galatura whose touch can mend her heart
she shall grant gifts of knowledge and art
For the shining sister that would clear the gates
Ereshkegal watches, and wonders, and waits.

Reposted from MySpace blog August 17, 2008